Christopher Plummer and Helen MirrenAnyone looking to finish off a to-do list of Oscar-nominated films will be relieved that "The Last Station" has arrived in Portland. It's the only film up for major bling that had yet to do so. It's also exactly the sort of movie that should benefit the most from Academy Award publicity -- a modest, performance-driven period piece about the later life of Leo Tolstoy.

Christopher Plummer is up for best actor as Tolstoy, the Russian literary giant whose fame was nearly equaled in his lifetime by his notoriety as the founder of a pacifistic, ascetic philosophy which attracted hordes of earnest, commune-founding apostles. "The Last Station" takes place in 1910, the final year of Tolstoy's life, as his wife, Sophia (best actress nominee Helen Mirren), clashes with his sycophantic publisher (Paul Giamatti), with the copyright to "War and Peace" and all the rest at stake. This conflict is observed by Valentin Bulgakov (James McAvoy), Tolstoy's young, newly assigned personal secretary.

As in "The Last King of Scotland," McAvoy's a believably wide-eyed audience surrogate who unexpectedly becomes an eyewitness to history. The two Oscar-tapped performances are, frankly, more workmanlike than volcanic, although Plummer manages some incendiary moments from behind that mammoth beard. Giamatti, in fact, makes off with a few scenes as the literally mustache-twirling antagonist, providing some welcome moments of over-the-top levity.